House poised for action on COOL — Senate readies to take a swing at WOTUS — Ben Carson: The vegetarian option

HOUSE POISED FOR ACTION ON COOL: House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway said in an interview with Pro Trade’s Victoria Guida on Wednesday that he will move forward quickly with legislation to repeal U.S. country of origin labeling requirements for beef, pork and poultry if the World Trade Organization again faults them as discriminatory. Agriculture Committee staff has circulated a draft of the legislation.

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"If [the WTO] rules our mandatory program is in fact in violation, [we'll move] just as quickly as we can get it out of legislative counsel," he said.

He said getting legislation passed by Memorial Day would be "pretty tight" but noted that such a bill would not be complicated. "If I have my way ... we’ll have a House answer early June," he said. More on the effort here: http://politico.pro/1A0NHZE

HAPPY THURSDAY, MAY 14! Welcome to Morning Ag, where the team is hoping for regular office sessions by indoor-size farm animals following a recent visit by a miniature pony: http://bit.ly/1JeGPd7. You know the deal: Thoughts, news, tips? Send them to jhopkinson@politico.comand @jennyhops. Follow the whole team at @ Morning_Ag.

SENATE READIES TO TAKE A SWING AT WOTUS: The Senate is finally ready to act on the EPA’s Waters of the United States rule, all thanks to the new Republican majority.

The Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday on a bill from Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) that seeks to force the EPA to re-propose the measure.

Action in the Senate marks a new and long-awaited front in the efforts of agriculture, manufacturing and land development groups to get lawmakers to scrap the EPA’s rule. Despite multiple votes over the past several years in the House of Representatives on legislation that would block the rule, the Senate, in part due to its prior Democratic leadership, took little action.

But with Republicans in charge and pressure mounting on agriculture-state lawmakers, that all seems about to change. Pros can check out the full story here: http://politico.pro/1EFMLp0

BEN CARSON: THE VEGETARIAN OPTION: In a field of Republican presidential hopefuls piling into agriculture-rich Iowa, one may be steering clear ofsome of the popular BBQ options. In addition to being a retired neurosurgeon, Ben Carson is also famously a vegetarian, dating all the way back to at least June 1990, when he was interviewed by the Vegetarian Times.

“Carson says health was the main reason for his dietary conversion,” the 15-year-old article observes. “‘There are more diseases that occur from eating meat,’ he says. ‘Not just parasitic diseases, but also things like saturated fats, cholesterol, triglycerides — problems that are compounded by meat eating. It just seems to me that a vegetarian lifestyle is a healthier way to go.’”

Doug Watts, Carson’s spokesman, confirms the candidate is still a vegetarian. Actually, he’s a “lacto-ovo vegetarian, meaning he will eat dishes with milk, eggs or cheese, and occasionally (but not preferably) chicken. His preference is for hearty vegetable/pasta/cheese dishes, eggplant, lasagna, etc.” Regardless, Carson’s diet might raise some eyebrows among meat industry folks (and there are a lot of them in Iowa), who have been vigorously pushing back against the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s report that recommends people cut back on red and processed meats to form more healthy diets. Check out the Vegetarian Times story here: http://bit.ly/1IBM0Dk

BUZZING FROM THE HOUSE AG BEE HEARING: The House Agriculture Biotechnology, Horticulture and Research Subcommittee met Wednesday to review federal efforts on pollinator health, but the session tended to focus on the relationship between the EPA and USDA and lawmakers’ support for neonicotinoid pesticides. Some highlights from the two-hour session:

— Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), chairman of the subcommittee, told USDA Chief Economist Robert Johansson and EPA Assistant Administrator Jim Jones during the hearing that they need to come to an agreement on neonicotinoid seed treatments, saying: “Part of the reason why both of you guys are sitting here is because we have concerns that there isn’t communication between the two agencies.”

— Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) urged the EPA not to ban neonicotinoid pesticides, which have proven to be effective in fighting the spread of citrus greening disease: “Florida without citrus is like Wal without Mart, it just doesn’t work.” Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) further commented that “neonicotinoids are becoming the whipping boy.”

— In continuing the administration’s vague promises to release the report on the federal task force for pollinator health, Jones promised it would be out “in the very near future.” When pressed, he said it will come “within the next several weeks, so it will not be much longer.” For those keeping track, June 20 will mark one year since President Barack Obama formed the task force.

NFU POINTS TO PROBLEMS ON ORGANIC CHECKOFF: The National Farmers Union is raising concerns that the proposed organic checkoff program wouldn’t adequately represent producers, gives too little money to research and allows too much of the funds raised to be spent on administrative costs. In a statement, NFU President Roger Johnson warned that the proposed board, which will be made up of farmers and processors, does not give enough power to growers, arguing that they “should have a majority of the board seats since they are clearly a majority of all certificate holders.” NFU’s statement is here: http://bit.ly/1cxHo4M

OTA TAKES ON ‘TRADITIONAL AGRICULTURE’: The Organic Trade Association, which is organizing the checkoff, was quick to push back on NFU’s complaints, arguing that conventional farmers wouldn’t understand the nuances of a program aimed at organic. In an email to MA, Executive Director Laura Batcha wrote that she isn’t “surprised that traditional agricultural organizations might have a hard time understanding some of the unique aspects of an organic program,” and added that the group is looking for “suggestions brought forward by organic stakeholders” to improve the proposal.

CSPI STILL HOPEFUL ON SODIUM: Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a staunch supporter of reducing sodium in the American diet, remains hopeful the FDA will issue voluntary sodium-reduction targets. Jacobson said he’s recently heard “a little bit of noise” on the subject from the FDA after months of silence and he’s taking that as a good sign.??When asked about the FDA’s work on sodium reduction last month, Susan Mayne, director of theFDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said "there's a team working very, very hard” on the issue but could not provide a deadline.

USDA REDUCES FLORIDA ORANGE HARVEST ESTIMATES: Citrus greening disease is continuing to wreak havoc on Florida's orange industry, with the USDA predicting that this year’s harvest will be down 8 percent from last year. In a crop outlook released Tuesday, the department says it expects just 96.4 million boxes from the 2014-15 growing season in the Sunshine State instead of the roughly 104 million boxes harvested in 2013-14. The biggest drop is in navel oranges, which are down 11 percent from last year while Valencia oranges are down just 5 percent. The report is here: http://bit.ly/1dZP011

NOT SO ALL-AMERICAN?: In what is one of the more, ahem, interesting label claim suits to cross MA’s desk recently, beer giant Anheuser-Busch is being sued in a California state court for the use of the term “Product of U.S.A.” on its Busch beer cans because the hops used in the brew are allegedly imported. The class-action suit filed by two California residents argues that the label claim violates the state’s Made in USA laws. The suit calls for damages to purchasers of the beer who were misled by the label claims and for the court to require Busch to remove the statement from its label. The complaint is here: http://bit.ly/1K2AeUi

NESTLE AIMS TO REDUCE WATER USAGE IN CALIF. PLANTS: Nestle is pledging to spend $7 million to extract water from the milk waste that’s produced at a Modesto, Calif., factory and use it for industrial needs in the company’s nine food and bottled-water facilities throughout the state. Nestle said the Modesto plant will be a “zero water” factory by the end of 2016, meaning it will not have to use any local fresh water, and it will supply other plants with the milk-extracted water. The company predicted the investment will eventually result in reducing the company’s local water consumption by 63 million gallons per year — that’s roughly 71 percent of the total water needs of the company in 2014. See the full company release here: http://bit.ly/1Ff2cZX

CROATIA HUNGERS FOR ORGANIC FOOD: Demand for organic food is on the rise in Croatia and there’s plenty of opportunity for the U.S. to expand imports to the market, according to a new report from USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. Responding to the demand, supermarkets throughout the country are stocking as much of the organic food — primarily fruits and vegetables — as possible and they are relying mostly on imports, the report said. Croatia imported about $397 million worth of organic fruits and vegetables last year, according to FAS, but only $1 million worth of the produce came from the U.S. See the full report here: http://1.usa.gov/1IyDdDv

N.D. AG POLICY OFFICIAL JOINS NASDA: Britt Aasmundstad, a former policy analyst and legislative assistant for the North Dakota Department of Agriculture, has joined the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture as the group’s manager of public policy.

Authors:

About The Author

Before joining POLITICO, she spent three years at Inside Washington Publishers reporting on the EPA with a focus on chemicals policy, pesticides and water issues. Prior to that, Hopkinson was a reporter for The (Salisbury, Md.) Daily Times where she followed local governments as they tackled falling tax revenues and stagnating rural development, in addition to playing almost every mini-golf course in Ocean City, Md., in the name of a feature story.

Hopkinson earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of Maryland. She lives in Washington, D.C.